1. General and Particular Scope of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved means for continuously providing information about athletic performance to a bicyclist during a bike ride, so that the cyclist may use this information to optimize his athletic performance. More particularly, the present invention provides means capable of retaining detailed information about a previous athletic performance in a memory device within a portable instrument and means for comparing in real time the previous performance with a new athletic performance (i.e. moment by moment while the new performance is in progress), and for displaying the comparative data to the athlete, for use in optimizing his current performance.
2. Known Prior Art
When an athlete, such as a bicyclist, is competing or training for athletic improvement, it is very difficult to achieve optimal results without some clear and objective metric of performance. Without such an objective metric, the athlete must rely on his subjective feeling of the level of effort he is expending. However, such feelings are very imprecise.
During a hard workout, the continuous feeling of fatigue may lead the athlete to believe he is performing at the intended level of effort, only to discover at the end of the workout that his actual performance was quite different from his desired goal.
One known method for providing objective measurements during an athletic performance, is to define a limited number of checkpoints along the route, and to keep track of how long it takes to reach those checkpoints by using a stopwatch.
With this approach, the athlete receives occasional feedback about how the current performance is going, but there are still problems. In practice this method is too crude and cumbersome to be useful in all but the simplest cases, as it is impractical to have a large number of these checkpoints, since the athlete must memorize them and the corresponding times.
Similarly, keeping track of the times at each checkpoint or even between performances, is difficult and error-prone, since the times keep changing as the athlete's performance improves. Furthermore, occasional checkpoints still do not give the athlete enough feedback for optimal guidance, since he must rely on the subjective feelings of exertion during the fairly long intervals between checkpoints as a gauge to his instantaneous performance.
At present, the best available solutions to these problems are embodied in portable devices known as CYCLE COMPUTERS. A cycle computer comprises a processor with an accurate clock, a sensor to measure the motion of a bicycle wheel, a display visible to the rider, and software to perform computations and display information.
Typically, such a cycle computer combines information about elapsed time with information about wheel motion, so as to compute and display elapsed time, distance traveled, average speed, and current speed. The most advanced cycle computers presently incorporate additional information relating to the rider's current performance, such as pedaling cadence and altitude. Some cycle computers also display symbols (such as + and -) to indicate whether the cyclist's current speed is above (+) or below (-) the average speed since the beginning of the present ride.
Existing cycle computers provide continuous information to the athlete about the current performance, the most important of which is speed. If the athlete is riding along a level route with road conditions suitable for constant speed, the existing cycle computer provides adequate information. All the athlete needs to know is the target speed for this workout, and he can observe at any moment whether he is performing at or above the target speed.
However, existing cycle computers do not provide adequate information for the vast majority of cycling routes, where road conditions vary significantly, and the route may pass over hills or even mountains. Along such routes, it is not possible to maintain a constant speed, and existing cycle computers do not present the right kind of information to allow the athlete to evaluate his performance continuously. With existing devices, the athlete must fall back to the old technique of memorizing the time it should take to reach certain checkpoints and evaluating his performance at those points.